Gérard Collomb OQ (; 20 June 1947 – 25 November 2023) was a French politician who served as

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

from 2001 to 2017 and again from 2018 until 2020. He joined

La République En Marche! Renaissance (RE) is a political party in France that is typically described as liberal and centrist or centre-right. The party was originally known as (EM) and later (, LREM, LaREM or REM), before adopting its current name in September 2022 ...

(LREM) in 2017, when he left the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

(PS), which he had joined in 1969. Collomb was

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

in the first and second government of Prime Minister

Édouard Philippe Édouard Charles Philippe (; born 28 November 1970) is a French politician serving as Mayor (France), mayor of Le Havre since 2020, previously holding the office from 2010 to 2017. He was Prime Minister of France from 15 May 2017 to 3 July 202 ...

from 2017 to 2018. Disagreements with President

Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra since 2017. He was Ministry of Economy and Finance (France), Minister of Economics, Industr ...

over immigration policy led him to resign and return as Mayor of Lyon. He was a councillor for both the City of Lyon and

Metropolis of Lyon The Metropolis of Lyon (, ), also known as Grand Lyon (, "Greater Lyon"), is a French territorial collectivity in the east-central region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is a directly-elected metropolitan authority, encompassing both the city of L ...

from 2020 until his death in 2023.

Political career

Local politics

Collomb was elected as a Socialist municipal councillor for the 9th arrondissement of Lyon in the 1977 French municipal elections, and was re-elected six times since then. In 1981, aged 34, he was elected to the

French National Assembly The National Assembly (, ) is the lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral French Parliament under the French Fifth Republic, Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (France), Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known ...

. He was re-elected in 1986 but lost his seat in 1988. From 1989 on, he led by the municipal opposition to Michel Noir on the Lyon municipal council. From 1992 to 1999 he also served as regional councillor for the

Rhône-Alpes Rhône-Alpes () was an administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it is part of the new region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is located on the eastern border of the country, towards the south. The region was named after the river Rhône a ...

region, before his resignation. Collomb was defeated in the 1995 local elections in Lyon, and became Mayor of the 9th arrondissement and vice-president of the Urban Community of Lyon, until 2001. He ran as leader of the Plural Left list in the 2001 local elections. He was elected Mayor on 25 March and also elected as president of the Urban Community of Lyon, a post he held until 2014. Among the projects he implemented was the

Vélo'v Vélo'v is a bicycle sharing system, bicycle-sharing system running in the city of Lyon, France, in conjunction with the advertising company JCDecaux. It has been the pioneer of smart bicycle-sharing systems, previous systems being more ad hoc a ...

. In 2004, Collomb was re-elected Senator for the

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ròse''; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Rôno'') is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before dischargi ...

. He was re-elected as Mayor of Lyon by a large margin in March 2008, defeating Dominique Perben of the

Union for a Popular Movement The Union for a Popular Movement ( ; UMP ) was a Liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative List of political parties in France, political party in France, largely inspired by the Gaullism, Gaullist tradition. During its existence, the UMP was o ...

(UMP) in the first round by a landslide. He was re-elected again in 2014. Ahead of the 2008 Reims Congress, Collomb led the "Hope on the left, proud to be Socialist" () motion of behalf of

Ségolène Royal Ségolène Royal (; born Marie-Ségolène Royal; 22 September 1953) is a French politician who took part in the 2007 French presidential election, losing to Nicolas Sarkozy in the second round. She was the first woman in France's history to r ...

. He was a finalist for the 2010

World Mayor World Mayor is a biennial award organized by the City Mayors Foundation since 2004. It intends to raise the profile of mayors worldwide, as well as honour those who have served their communities well and who have contributed to the well-being of c ...

prize. Collomb was President of the

from 2015 to 2017. From 2017 until his death he was the councillor for the Metropolis of Lyon.

Career in national politics

Collomb was one of

's first close allies and vocal supporters among leading Socialists ahead of the 2017 presidential elections. On 17 May 2017, he was named

in the Philippe Government. Lyon Deputy mayor Georges Képénékian was elected as Lyon mayor succeeding Collomb. In October 2018, Collomb prevailed in resigning in order to run again for mayor of Lyon. He was quoted saying of Macron, ‘Very few of us can still talk to" him. Collomb was "recently revealed to have said in private that France risked a civil war unless immigration, legal and illegal, was sharply curtailed within the next five years". As minister he had "talked about France being 'flooded' by immigrants—a term frequently used by" past

National Rally The National Rally (, , RN), known as the National Front from 1972 to 2018 (, , FN), is a French far-right politics, far-right political party, described as right-wing populist and French nationalism, nationalist. It is the single largest Nat ...

presidential candidate

Marine Le Pen Marion Anne Perrine "Marine" Le Pen (; born 5 August 1968) is a French lawyer and politician of the far-right National Rally, National Rally party (RN). She served as the party's president from 2011 to 2021, and ran for the French presidency in ...

. After touring parts of

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

as minister, Collomb had said, “The situation is very difficult" and used the phrase "Reconquering the Republic” to frame the challenge facing the country.

Death

Gérard Collomb died after a battle with

stomach cancer Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a malignant tumor of the stomach. It is a cancer that develops in the Gastric mucosa, lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a numb ...

on 25 November 2023 in the suburb of Lyon at the age of 76.

Honours

Collomb was appointed an Officer of the Order of Quebec (OQ) in 2014, and an Officer of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

on 31 December 2021. Collomb was appointed to the Order of the Rising Sun, second class (Gold and Silver Star) by the

Japanese government The Government of Japan is the central government of Japan. It consists of legislative, executive and judiciary branches and functions under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan. Japan is a unitary state, containing forty- ...

in 2019, for his contributions towards Franco-Japanese relations.

References

External links

City Mayors profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Collomb, Gerard 1947 births 2023 deaths People from Chalon-sur-Saône Socialist Party (France) politicians Renaissance (French political party) politicians French interior ministers State ministers of France Deputies of the 7th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Deputies of the 8th National Assembly of the French Fifth Republic Members of Parliament for Rhône French senators of the Fifth Republic Senators of Rhône (department) Mayors of Lyon French Freemasons University of Lyon alumni Officers of the National Order of Quebec Officers of the Legion of Honour Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd class Deaths from stomach cancer in France